Yep, you already guessed what I’m going to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. One of the key issues in the presidential election is health care for the uninsured. I haven’t seen the proposal I’m pondering anywhere yet, so I thought it would be worth putting out there:
The Wall Street Journal of August 25, 2008 (sorry, I can’t find an online link), talks about how the health care uninsured will pay $30 billion out of pocket, and the US government will spend at least $56 billion to cover sick care costs. Total: $86 billion. So here’s an idea: Follow the Habits of Highly Healthy Humans (see related articles in this website). Can you imagine how much less sick care would be needed if $86 billion was spent on making healthy food choices available and eliminating the dangerous, disease-producing processed foods. Then we could call our “sick care” system a true “health care” system. For fun, try watching Morgan Spurlock in “Supersize Me.” It’s amazing to see the provable results of eating unhealthy foods. The magic healer for our bodies lies in eating organic, healthy foods, prepared with gratitude and care. If organic seems to be too expensive, you can purchase and eat much less and be satisfied much more quickly.
I need to get off of caffeine. I became addicted to it after suffering headaches and taking excedrin. Now I have rebound headaches and even diet coke fills in when I need an extra boost. I have tried weening myself off and never made it. Is that the only way off?
There are only 2 ways to stop the addiction to caffeine--cold turkey and have a miserable 3-7 days or slowly, which just prolongs the misery, and may not work. My wife's mother described herself as a 'coffee-a-holic', drinking up to 13 cups per day. She stopped cold turkey, had a miserable few days, and has never touched it since. Sometimes energy work like acupuncture or Jin Shin Jyutsu or cranial-sacral may take away some of the side effects. Be sure you are on a good multiple vitamin, as this may also help with your strength and your resolve.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Kristen // Aug 26, 2008 at 11:00 am
A neighbor recently underwent hyperbaric oxygen therapy for an infected toe - to the tune of $50,000 in insurance costs. He at least had insurance to cover this. The end of the story? The treatments didn’t work and he is to have the toe amputated this week.
There are seven people living within two blocks of me that currently have some form of cancer. Two are in remission. We held a funeral last week for another one. None of them have considered that their diet plays any part of it, and they don’t hear it from the doctors.
2 Cara Patterson // Aug 29, 2008 at 4:06 pm
You should write an article about the economics of medicine. It is not about health, it is about business. We hear a lot about “big oil”, but nothing of “big pharma”. The incredible worth of these companies is staggering, along with their political power and influence. Who funds medical schools? Were you taught about natural solutions to illness in school? Who funds the research done, and more importantly, who won’t fund research in order to maintain natural solutions “unproven”? Is research suppressed? Whose interest is served by the FDA? Who stands to gain financially from our illnesses? Do you run any risks professionally by using “alternative” treatments? I checked out Bill Maher’s anti-pharma rant on youtube. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
3 Cara Patterson // Aug 29, 2008 at 4:21 pm
One more question. You would think it would make sense that insurance companies would want to keep people healthy. How heavily invested are they in pharma that they will not cover alternative care? Your thoughts on health care solutions would be wonderful.
4 Dr. Stan Gardner // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Kristen, The other piece of the picture for avoiding amputation is oxidation (or free radical release) at the site of ‘almost dead toe’. Anti-oxidants are a critical component of the treatment, including IV EDTA chelation. If the toe is bad because of diabetes, proper diet and care must also be excercised. Magnets emit healing frequencies that have also been shown helpful in hypoxic tissue.
Cara, You make very astute observations and ask very good questions. My perception that the American public has been at best misled, and at worst deliberately deceived leads me to direct my focus on what I can do for myself and for my patients to achieve positive healthy outcomes. There is a slow movement toward alternative care, both in the medical community and insurance industry. More insurances are permitting plans where you, the individual, can decide where much of the insurance money goes, including supplements and alternative care. ‘I have a dream’ that some day, there will be no chasm between traditional medicine and the medicine I now practice. There are those today that are trying to bridge that gap. Thank you for your insights.
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